Mason Perry Jones, of Jackson, Mississippi, pleaded guilty to murder in Oktibbeha County circuit court Thursday in the March 2012 shooting of John Sanderson, of Madison, Mississippi, according to The Clarion-Ledger. 
Jones shot and killed Sanderson, a Mississippi State University first-semester transfer student, in MSU residence hall Evans Hall. 
Jones was charged with capital murder in the case but pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, which sentences Jones to life in prison with the possibility of parole at age 65. 
Jones is one of three men accused in the case. The other two, Duntae Harvey and Trent Deundra Crump, have not yet been tried.
Both Harvey and Crump are from Rankin County. Harvey, Crump and Jones were all 21 at the time of the shooting. 
According the The Clarion-Ledger’s report, Assistant District Attorney Katie Moulds said Sanderson’s family had a part in deciding whether or not to accept the plea. 
Moulds said in The Clarion-Ledger that in trials such as this one, they allow the victim’s family to make decisions, and in this case, the family allowed Jones to plead guilty and be sentenced to life in prison. 
In March 2012, Sanderson was shot fatally multiple times in a first floor Evans Hall room. MSU Police arrived on the scene shortly after and found Sanderson with serious injuries. They were initially unable to tell if he was shot or stabbed. 
The incident was isolated as the perpetrators fled the scene immediately and posed no further risk to MSU’s campus.
The motivation for the crime is still unknown, although officials believe it to be drug-related, The Clarion-Ledger reports.